


Crumbling Gold

by Lilleyn



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Implied/Referenced Car Crash, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Multi, Other, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-06 14:43:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20508740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilleyn/pseuds/Lilleyn
Summary: On their 10th birthday every person on earth receives a piece of jewellery that fits perfectly with the one from their soulmate. You'll never feel complete unless you find the missing piece to yours.Logan wants to study the jewellery and know how they work.Roman dreams of going far away on an adventure and finding his missing piece.Patton doesn't know what he wants or if he even wants to find his soulmate.And Virgil kind of gave up on having soulmates long ago.





	1. Prologue

No one really knew where the jewellery came from, although there were a million different theories about how a soul bond is formed and how your own personal trinket connected to it. 

With 9 years and 364 days old, Logan had read every piece of information he could get his hands on about soulmates, their bonds and how you could find your soulmate. So he thought he was prepared for when he’d wake up on his 10th birthday, but reading about different kinds of soul jewellery and holding your own for the first time was completely different. Not one article described the electrical aura around the small coppery pin that had appeared during the night. No scientist mentioned the spark that zapped him when he touched it. And not one book managed to capture the mesmerising change going through the small piece of jewellery at his touch. The air around it seemed to warm up significantly while the coppery exterior shimmered and finally settled on a gold-like metal with a small dark blue gem embedded in it. Some philosopher say that a piece of your own soul gets stuck in your trinket which triggers the change in appearance and it only gets released when you bring it together with its missing piece. Only then you’ll feel complete again. 

Others say that a part of your soul is already split from you and laying dormant in your soulmate’s piece. Through that first touch it awakens and tries to reconnect with you. That is when you realise you’ve been missing a piece of yourself and will never feel complete without it. 

Logan always thought it was exaggerated nonsense made up by emotional grown-ups with too much imagination. How can a piece of metal, no matter how weird, hold sway over your soul, if something as a soul even existed in the first place? But even he couldn’t deny the hollow feeling that settled in his chest when he made contact. 

And no one had to know, if a small wave of relief washed through him. That there really was someone out there for him, despite the teasing of his fellow classmates who said Logan resemble a robot, with no sense of humour or emotions. Who would ever love someone like that.

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Roman always thought his ring looked like a small shooting star. A red gem embedded in one side, being trailed by the weird metal all the soul jewellery was made from. Scientist from all around the world have tried to figure out what kind of metal it is, but it didn’t seem like anything from this earth and no one had been able to melt it yet. Kids who tried holding their trinket over an open flame only burn their own fingers. The metal stayed cool to the touch. Throwing the jewellery into a smelting oven did nothing but aggravate the respective owner out of fear it might melt anyway. 

Although no heat found on this earth had been able to even weaken the metal (and not for lack of trying; there was this one video online of a drunken guy, who somehow managed to get close to an active volcano, throwing his ring into it and then standing sobbing at the edge and thinking about pulling a Gollum and jumping in after it; his friends stopped him and last anyone heard he was getting professional help to deal with depression he got after the incident) 

People have seen the metal melting and just vanishing into thin air like a small wisp of smoke. First scientists thought it happened at random because there was no simple connection between the people whose jewellery melted away. It took years before a scientist pointed out that the affected haven’t found their soulmates yet. They proposed the idea that if you hadn’t matched yet and your soulmate died, your own piece would melt away and vanish, taking your part of the soul with it so you could never feel complete again. Although there was no way to test this theory, most people accepted it as the way things are. Especially since the trinket of an unmatched dead person vanished as well. Some people even believed that you could try to find your own missing soul piece and get whole again. 

Those were the people that came to Roman‘s house on a daily basis, hoping that one of his family members might be able to find their missing piece in the ether. Or something like that. Although Roman loved everything dramatic and acting was his passion, he tried to keep out of the family business. He couldn’t handle all the desperate clients, hoping to reach something, already lost to them. Most people seemed to prefer woman to guide them through the seance-like ritual anyway, so it wasn’t like he could help the business anyway. The only thing he could do was buy more incense and clean up afterwards, but he’d rather rehearse for plays, write or just daydream. 

Mostly about his soulmate. Or rather soulmates. Of course he wasn’t sure there would be multiple for him but most pieces that belong together were pretty similar, like his grandparent’s rings with perfect fitting swirls complimenting each other. And his little comet didn’t look like it would be complete with just one more piece. Not that Roman often thought about the logical part behind all of it, he was more of a dreamer. In his vision one of his soulmates was a strong and courageous hero, always fighting for good and supporting everyone. While one other soulmate would be tripping through the world and Roman and the other hero would always come to their rescue. It would be so romantic and amazing, once he found them. But for that he must leave. He knew it. In none of his dreams, his soulmates were close by. When he imagined how they’d meet, it was always in some far away country. Some adventure calling all of them to the right place at the right time. 

But before he could search for his own adventure he had to survive high school first. Which probably counted as a big evil he had to defeat. At least in his opinion. There were the screaming harpies, otherwise known as the small group of popular girls who already found their soulmate at this school. It didn’t matter that the couple together on a good day had as much brains as his beloved cat that jumped into the little pond behind their house on Christmas Eve last year. Also there was the swamp you had to cross on a regular basis also known as the toilets. Who knew what kinds of icky liquids were plastered all over the floor. And the odour filling the air could only be described as putrid. 

His arch nemesis, the dragon witch, more commonly known as Mrs Milfert, the math teacher, was already sitting perched on the edge of her chair waiting to start another lesson of pure torture. It’s not that he didn’t understand or cared for math but truthfully he didn’t care. He loved being creative and dramatic, pondering numbers wasn’t going to help him find adventure or his soulmates. But, alas, he had to endure it and if he spaced out while the witch droned on about triangles or whatever to dream about finding romance, who would judge him?

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Patton was humming while dusting some of the oldest showcases they had in their little museum. “Afternoon, grams. How’re you doing today?” He paused and listened intently for anything. The only sound was his grandpa shuffling in the next room over. “Same old, same old, I see. Always with the stony silence”, he giggled at his own joke. 

Looking back at the stony swirls one last time, he mumbled a “see you later” before entering the next chamber. There in the farthest side were his favourite pieces. They were one of the more recent dates jewellery. Mostly because people only donated pieces that were at least two or three generations old. Which was the time span when the personal attachment to them lessened. Of course some people liked to keep them as family history and they were afraid someone might do tests on the jewellery they donated. Most people didn’t realise you could request that they won’t be used for experiments. Because sometimes scientist came to the museum, collected some of the older pieces and never brought them back. Patton tried to remember every name and story like someone would treasure the secret of a close friend. Although he knew he was only talking to rocks, there was a love story, platonic or romantic, behind every single one, someone had to remember and he felt like some of them were his friends. 

Once a really ‘persistent’ team of scientist tried to get his parents’ jewellery and they actually dragged them to court. Apparently trinkets that already turned to stone with one part of the pair still alive were a rare find in a museum and could potentially help science in figuring out what happened after one party died when they already met their soulmate. The scientist said they shouldn’t be selfish and keep it. They should give them the pieces so they can continue their research. 

Patton had cried. He was afraid he would lose them. The stones were the only good thing remaining if his parents. It showed their love in each other and in their family. Because once soulmates meet and one of them dies the jewellery doesn’t melt away. Instead a loud cracking sound would fill the air (some people say it’s the heart breaking) and the jewellery of all parties will crack open and slowly turn in a granite look-alike material. It was a horrendous sound and heart wrenching to see. 

Patton has heard the sound one time. The day his dad left to grab some groceries and never returned. The police came by later and they send him away to his grandparents. They shouldn’t have bothered. He read the article about the accident online. He saw his fathers ring in his mother’s hand. The one that kind of looked like Pac-Man and which he never took of. He knew what the terrible cracking noise had been and why his mother had gone pale and unresponsive. He was the one who called his grandparents in the first place because he felt completely lost and his mother didn’t react to anything. He was so relieved when his grandfather came over since he was also the one who stopped his mother from smashing her own ring, which had been the most beautiful silver Patton had ever seen but was now grey and lifeless, against the ground. 

Over time his mother retracted farther from him and his life. His grandparents tried to take care of him, they even went to parents day at his school, while his mother hid away in her room. Patton still sat with her every day and told her about school and what had been going on in the neighbourhood. He tried to be overly enthusiastic and positive about everything to get her to smile or at least not show her how sad he felt so he didn’t burden her with his own feelings. But he noticed her condition worsened. It didn’t matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t reach her. Patton felt sad and thought it couldn’t get much worse than it already was. 

He realised he was wrong, when he came back from school one Friday afternoon, glad that it was finally weekend, only to find a police officer talking to his grandmother in the living room while he could hear his grandfather moving about the house. A little panicked when they noticed him they sent him directly to his room. Scared about what happened he didn’t dare leave his room and his grandfather came by later to explain it all to him. His deepest fear was proven true and his mother was admitted to a clinic where they might be able to help her. They specialised in taking care of people who’d lost their soulmate. At least now his mother had people who knew how to proper care for her. Who knew, one day she might be able to shake the stupor that had taken over her body. It wasn’t uncommon, that humans who lost their soulmate shut out the rest of the world. Some recovered from the despair. Some did not.


	2. Chapter 1

Excited chatter filled the Prince household. It was prom night and everyone was doting on Roman. Not that he particularly minded, due to his own excitement and nervousness. So much was riding on this one night. So much could go wrong. Although he had helped plan everything he didn’t know how it’d go. What if everything went wrong? What if the amazing vision he had in his mind wouldn’t translate to reality like he imagined? And on top of it he got nominated for prom king. So he had to look especially fabulous this night.  
Also he was running late, to being early to overlook the last preparations.  
“Do you know if your brother is coming as well?”, his auntie sounded unlikely timid while asking. The question dampened the mood a little. Talk about Remus was a touchy subject since he had packed his bags and moved into a downtown apartment with two other guys, after he had another fall out with their grandma who just didn’t understand him at all. Not that Roman ever got along with his twin before. But the fall out was harsh and no one talked about Remus for a few months after the move or their mother would start crying again. As a lover of all things drama Roman tried to get all the details out of the involved parties. But they all got this disapproving and disappointing look in their face when he started pestering them. Even his aunts and cousins didn’t want to share what they knew. So on a mission to find the truth, Roman went to Remus’ new home and sat down with his twin and his new roommates. They seemed kind of weird, but so did Remus. One of them, Dee, even told him a believable if not a bit outlandish story about what happened. But Roman was thinking it might have been lies. Not that he could tell just by looking for a sign of lying in the others body language, or the content of the story that somehow involved fireworks (illegal in their state), an exploding toilet (not in correlation with the aforementioned fireworks), a pillow stuffed with feathers (surprisingly not exploding), three and a half garden gnomes (very specific part with the half one) and a ballon conveniently filled with paint (green paint obviously). And of course their neighbours dog house. If not for the the occasional scoff and near constant scowling from the third roommate, Roman would’ve believed every word. Even then he wasn’t sure if it might not have been true. After all Remus had always been creative in a different way. At least he was pretty sure when the other boy scowled he just got lied to, although that might be his basic reaction to everything, because as soon as he noticed Roman watching he frowned at him and his scowl intensified. Well, too bad, if he wouldn’t make such a hostile face he’d be pretty cute. Not that Roman wanted to have contact with any of Remus’ friends. They were obviously not a good judge in character if they lived with his twin by choice.

So Roman left as soon as he got the whole story and he tried to keep contact to a minimum. He could never understand how his twin had turned out like this or how his mind worked. So he couldn’t tell if Remus was likely to show up at prom or not. He certainly hoped not. Every time the twins were someplace together people tended to compare them. Which neither of them liked very much. But Remus was a senior as well so he had a right to attend. As well as his roommates. At least the grumpy one. Roman was pretty sure he’d seen him around school. Dee was definitely older but he could still attend as a date to either one of them. There actually was this rumour going around school that Remus Prince left his weird but respected home to live in a scandalous sexual relationship with his soulmate. And his twin was loving the attention he was getting, he might have even started it in the first place.  
But Roman also knew it wasn’t true. Well at least he couldn’t be sure because Remus (Roman as well but not as bad) had always had this trouble with impulse control. And he always liked to share his weird ideas with Roman, which didn’t mix well with his recklessness. But these were not stories Roman liked to remember. Also he promised to never tell anyone how Remus lost his trinket. It was a special promise between twins where it didn’t matter that they couldn’t stand each other. No one outside of them would ever know the story about the bridge. It had been shortly after their 12th birthday and they were on their way home after school. As always they crossed the bridge over the small river winding through the town. Remus was playing around with his ring which was uncommon because normally he had it on a necklace but on this day he had taken it off right after school and was holding it in his hand. Until he wasn’t. Before Roman could have reacted his twin had stopped, drawn back his arm and tossed the ring into the flowing water down below. He would never forget how his twin turned to him, said “I don’t know why I did that” and made a move to jump over the railing after it. But Roman stopped him by clasping a hand on his shoulder. “You won’t find it if you jump in like this. This is crazy”, he practically had to drag his brother to the other side and away from the water. All the while trying to think of a solution and who they could ask for help, but he just drew a blank. Same as their family. No one knew what to do. They couldn’t just ask the police for divers to send after a ring. It was hopeless and in the wake of the incident Remus grew odd and unreachable. So Roman spend all his free time on sketching and colouring the list ring as lifelike as he possibly could. He was pretty proud of himself for how similar it looked once he was finished. He thought it would have been a good present so his twin still had a chance to find his soulmate. Never did he expect Remus to react so hostile to it. He accused him of making fun and just showing him what he had lost and never would get back.  
Their relationship wasn’t the same after that day. It became a fractured mess and they never really talked much after Remus got Roman to promise him to never tell anybody about it.

The twins mostly fought after that anytime they were in close proximity to each other. Which was bad since they still shared a bedroom at the time. That problem got settled when when their family renovated the attic into a room for Roman. He helped decorating and he loved having a space to be creative in. And it was a good way of separating the brothers. He was pretty sure Remus had only been to his room once when he left the burned remains of Roman’s sketch before going back down again.

So no, Roman didn’t know if his twin would attend prom.

————————

Roman was watching small groups trickle into the hall. He definitely felt a little nervous and kept searching the faces of the slowly growing crowd. He should probably go mingle but he’d already spoken to every volunteer, the band, even the attending teachers but the possibility of Remus making a big entrance had him on edge. His twin knew how important the prom was to Roman and he couldn’t stop imagining what could go wrong. Most worst case scenarios involved Remus, he always had a knack for weird ideas to mix up a crowd.

Uneasy he went outside to check the queuing people who waited to get in. He absentmindedly greeted the guy who’d volunteered to check the tickets, while flicking his look around. Everyone seemed to be in a great mood which seriously calmed his nerves and he waved at a few friends he saw waiting in line. He cast another look around. “You okay there kiddo?” Someone asked behind him and roman turned around, expecting maybe one of the parents who had volunteered but instead it was the guy checking the tickets. Patrick or something like that. Roman has never been good with names and they had never talked before but his friendly smile and demeanour somehow calmed Roman. “Yeah I’m alright. I’m just checking to see if my brother has already arrived.” Without meaning to he somehow ended up leaning on the desk where the guy continued checking tickets. “I’m Roman by the way. I don’t think we’ve been introduced before.”, he said a little unsure of himself. That was new. “I’m Patton. It’s nice to meet you.”, the guy, Patton, looked up at him and flashed him a smile. Roman tried to think of something witty or elegant to say but his usual charm was failing him. That had never happened before. It’s not that Patton was not good looking, he was definitely cute, but he had never felt so unsure even in the presence of cute guys. Normally he was the embodiment of self esteem and charm.  
Thankfully before any awkward silence could settle between them Patton started gushing about the prom, the decoration, the band who’d already played a beautiful song for their sound check and how dashing everyone looked this night. It seemed like he could have talked for hours but he always made pauses for Roman to give his input before continue rambling on. In between he chatted with the arriving guests. Roman was perplex, how come he had never talked to Patton before. Clearly missed time. They were just talking about all the nominees for king and queen and who was most likely to win due to popularity and attire on this evening. Parton has just inquired why Roman was sitting outside and if he shouldn’t have been inside talking to everyone, when someone interrupted them. “Yeah shouldn’t you be inside, Prince?” He wasn’t sure if they meant it as a title or his last name but he had never heard it spoken so degrading. When Roman looked up to see who’d interfered in their conversation he was met with his twin who had a crazy glint in his eyes with a guy Roman had never seen before. Although he definitely didn’t know the guy, who’d been so rude to disrupt their chat but he somehow seemed familiar, he just couldn’t tell why. “Remus. You’re here. How nice.”, he could practically taste the sickly sweet sarcasm tripping from his lips. “You seem familiar, have we met? I’m Remus’ twin Roman but you already seem to know that.”, he put on the biggest fake smile while Patton checked their tickets. “Roman”, Pat chastised him softly. “Something wrong Roman?”, Remus asked nonchalantly. “You’ve met my roommate, Dee, I think” “Dee?”, he wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly but he was pretty certain the lying roommate had looked different in their apartment. Like completely different. “I thought I’d dress up for the occasion. It’s a big day after all.”, came the suave reply from the guy who was clearly Dee. Now that Roman knew he couldn’t unsee it. The same calculating eyes and a smile that promised tricks, but somehow he looked completely different at the same time. That was definitely a useful skill and Roman was impressed. He would never admit it though and silence appeared to settle between them when, to no ones surprise, Patton spoke up. “Well, you both look amazing and I wish you a great evening and hope you have a ton of fun, guys.”, he said while handing them back the tickets. “Thank you. I’m so excited to see what you guys have planned for this evening. And good luck with the election, Prince.”, Roman didn’t know how someone could sound so genuine when he obviously didn’t mean it. He didn’t need the grumpy roommate to discern that lie.

Patton laid a hand on his shoulder which startled Roman out of his thoughts. It was undoubtedly not a good sign that these two were there. “So it looks like your brother finally arrived.”, Patton prompted him to react and tried to bridge the awkward tension that was still settling between them to get Roman to relax. “It seems so. Sorry Patton, I have to go inside to check the ... uhhh ... punch. I’ll see you later.” Hastily he got up but before he could vanish inside, Patton grabbed his wrist. “You know it’ll be fine. They won’t start anything today.”, his blue eyes shone with conviction and sincerity. Roman sincerely hoped his twin wouldn’t be the person who destroyed that positive outlook on people. “It’s their evening too. They deserve a fun time like everyone else.”, he wanted to mention that their fun might not agree with everyone else’s fun but he didn’t get a word in before Patton continued. “There are people to reign in troublemakers and in the worst case throw them out. They only tried to rile you up. It’ll be fine. Trust me.” Patton softly pressed his arm. And he did trust him. “You’re probably right. Thank you, Pat. I still have to go inside, I promised the theatre guys to meet them. But save me a dance when you finally get inside, yeah?”, he winked before turning away and finding his friends. He wasn’t sure why he always had to be so forward and weird. Well, Patton was cute and he had laughed at that. Maybe they could meet again, they seemed to get on really well although that might just be his gay heart dreaming and imagining things.  
He didn’t have long to ponder it on this evening though because people kept approaching him and involving him in various conversations. Through it all he kept a lookout for any shenanigans. Or Patton to have that dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the first proper chapter. hope I'll get the next one out in time. Hope you guys like it, if anyone wants to talk, either about the au or anything else, my tumblr is a-liltime
> 
> HAve fun <3


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